N.C. State coach Mark Gottfried might not be calm on the sideline, but he kept his cool when others were losing it recently

RALEIGH —The mark of a successful leader is the ability to stay calm while everyone around him is panicking.

It’s a quality that helped Capt. Sully Sullenberger land his crippled jetliner safely in the Hudson River, saving everyone aboard, and has enabled countless military generals to win battles even though their armies were outnumbered.

This is not to say that sports figures can be or should be compared to those kind of heroes in life-or-death situations, As we all know, win or lose, there will always be more games to play and championships to pursue.

But when it comes to keeping your cool while the world around you is losing it and turning the proverbial chicken droppings into chicken salad, few have proven themselves better than N.C. State basketball coach Mark Gottfried.

Just one month ago, the sky seemed to be falling in on Gottfried and his Wolfpack.

Within the span of a few days, first-team All-ACC guard Cat Barber left for the NBA with no intention of returning, twins Caleb and Cody Martin announced their intention to transfer and both Abdul-Malik Abu and BeeJay Anya unexpectedly decided to dip their toes into the NBA water by submitting their names in the draft.

The apparent mass exodus threatened to leave State with an even thinner roster than the one with which it suffered through last season and sent radio talk show hosts into a feeding frenzy while distraught fans vented their fears and frustrations on social media.

Gottfried was one of the few that kept his head through it all.

Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried was prepared for the early departure of star Cat Barber

“I never dialed 911 this year,” he said. “I know a lot of people probably did, but I never did.”

The reason he didn’t is that he knew Barber’s replacement was already on campus in the person of five-star point guard prospect Dennis Smith Jr. and that, barring an unforeseen development, both Abu and Anya would likely be back.

All he really needed to do was go out and find a few more pieces to fit around them.

So instead of joining everyone else on the edge of the nearest cliff, the veteran coach hopped a plane and flew to Istanbul, Turkey, where he landed five-star big man Omer Yurtseven. He and his newly revamped staff also landed a three-star power forward in Darius Hicks and a sharpshooting preferred walkon in Spencer Newman.

And there might still be another player or two to come.

Suddenly, the Wolfpack is now being hailed as a “team to watch” in 2016-17 and those same people that were calling for Gottfried to be fired are now posting Tweets that read “In Gott We Trust.”

It’s a turnaround many will call miraculous. Gottfried’s history, however, suggests otherwise. The former ESPN analyst has become a master of the late pickup.

Maverick Rowan is one of several late pickups Gottfried has secured during his tenure with the Wolfpack

Whether it was fifth-year transfer Alex Johnson in 2011, reclassified high school grads Maverick Rowan and Shaun Kirk a year ago or the top-drawer recruits he just signed over the past few days, Gottfried seems to have a knack for finding needles in a haystack.

Instead of criticizing him for losing so many players to transfer, which he often is despite the fact that it’s a nationwide problem, perhaps Gottfried should be hailed for being ahead of the curve in dealing with a new and changing college basketball landscape.

“Your rosters may be a little more fluid than they’ve ever been because there are so many parts that are moving at times,” he said Thursday at a press conference announcing Abu’s return. “It makes it harder. What we have to do as coaches is adapt. It’s just part of the turf now and we’ve got to make sure we still find ways to be competitive within that.”

That doesn’t mean he enjoys having to pull a rabbit out of his hat every spring, a sentiment he shares with the dozen or so other coaches with whom he sat nervously watching their players at last week’s NBA Combine in Chicago. But if it comes to that, he knows how to handle the situation.

By staying calm — or at least, giving the appearance of it — when everyone around him is panicking.

“I’m not one of those guys that ever bought into the ‘sky is falling,’” Gottfried said of the rollercoaster ride he’s been on for the past month. “At the same time, we can all (now) take a deep breath and move forward.”